Transportation Systems Modeling and Simulation

Simulation modeling is increasingly being used for analyzing transportation problems that are difficult to study through traditional analytical methods. Depending on the nature of the problem, different types of models are considered: microscopic models designed to track the movements of individual vehicles; macroscopic models designed to simply capture the general relationships between flow, density, and speed; or mesoscopic models incorporating elements from both microscopic and macroscopic models. The use of each type of model presents specific challenges in how to adequately model traffic situations of interest, not to mention the need for proper calibrations. A particular emphasis of the research program at UMTRI is on the modeling of wireless-based intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and vehicle-infrastructure integration (VII) applications within microscopic (PARAMICS, VISSIM) and mesoscopic traffic simulators for the evaluation of deployment needs within both small and large scale networks.